Venice: in aedibus Aldii [Aldus Manutius], December 1501. Venice: in aedibus Aldii [Aldus Manutius],, December 1501. Octavo (150 x 94 mm); collation: A-Z, &8. Mid-17th century Continental sheep sometime rebacked with the original spine laid-down, sides gilt tooled overall with roll tool borders enclosing large central lozenge, centre and corners filled with scrolling floriate motifs (including a tulip tool), remains of pinkish silk ties, spine tooled in black with a repeated floriate motif within five compartments (and tulip tool), blue-green edges. Previous owner's monogram on colophon leaf. A little wear to extremities of binding, gilt dulled, gathering N misbound after gathering O, small ink stain to fore-edge encroaching slightly in to margin of a couple of gatherings, without the terminal blank leaf otherwise a very good copy. First Aldine edition, one of the earliest books to be produced in pocket format and in Aldus's beautiful italic type. Aldus starting issuing his groundbreaking "Libelli Portatiles" - or "Portable Library" - in April 1501 with an edition of Virgil, followed by Horace in May, Petrarch in July, Juvenal and Perseus in August, and this edition of Martial in December, marking 1501 as one of the most extraordinary years in the history of publishing. The editio princeps of the Epigrammata was printed at Venice by Vindelinus de Spira between 1469 and 1473. "The series of editions of classical Latin and Greek authors and Italian vernacular poets published as pocket-sized books (enchiridia) was Aldus's most successful editorial innovation... [and they] im
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Venice: in aedibus Aldii [Aldus Manutius], December 1501. Venice: in aedibus Aldii [Aldus Manutius],, December 1501. Octavo (150 x 94 mm); collation: A-Z, &8. Mid-17th century Continental sheep sometime rebacked with the original spine laid-down, sides gilt tooled overall with roll tool borders enclosing large central lozenge, centre and corners filled with scrolling floriate motifs (including a tulip tool), remains of pinkish silk ties, spine tooled in black with a repeated floriate motif within five compartments (and tulip tool), blue-green edges. Housed in a brown flat-back cloth box by the Chelsea Bindery. Previous owner's monogram on colophon leaf. A little wear to extremities of binding, gilt dulled, gathering N misbound after gathering O, small ink stain to fore-edge encroaching slightly in to margin of a couple of gatherings, without the terminal blank leaf otherwise a very good copy. First Aldine edition, one of the earliest books to be produced in pocket format and in Aldus's beautiful italic type. Aldus starting issuing his groundbreaking "Libelli Portatiles" - or "Portable Library" - in April 1501 with an edition of Virgil, followed by Horace in May, Petrarch in July, Juvenal and Perseus in August, and this edition of Martial in December, marking 1501 as one of the most extraordinary years in the history of publishing. The editio princeps of the Epigrammata was printed at Venice by Vindelinus de Spira between 1469 and 1473. "The series of editions of classical Latin and Greek authors and Italian vernacular poets published as pocket-sized books (enchiridia) was
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London: Pr. for the author & sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, et al., 181213. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). 2 vols. I: xxxvi, 387, [1] pp.; 1 plt. II: [2], 395, [1] pp. Second edition of this popular survey of the history of time and calendars from the ancient world onwards, following the first edition of 1812. Brady here describes the rituals and lore associated with the regulation of time, in all its divisions and subdivisions; much material from the lives of the saints is present. Allibone quotes the London Quarterly Review's assertion that "Especially to students in divinity and law, [the work] will be an invaluable acquisition; and we hesitate not to declare that, in proportion as its merits become known to the public, it will find its way to the libraries of every gentleman and scholar in the kingdom." Contemporary opinion seems to have borne that prediction out, as the subscribers list here (carried over from the first edition) is substantial and the work went through several editions in the first few years after its initial publication. Vol. I is illustrated with one wood-engraved plate depicting a Saxon almanac, and seven in-text engravings depicting Odin, Frigga, Thor, and the other deities with days named in their honor. Provenance: Signature on title-pages of George Buckton, vol. I dated 1812 and vol. II dated 1813. Allibone 237 (listing 1813 & 1814 eds. only); NSTC B4120. Contemporary treed calf, rebacked preserving original spines with gilt-stamped titles, gilt-ruled and -dotted compartment bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; ori
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1501. Single quarto manuscript document signed by Queen Isabella of Spain, dated 20 November, 1501. With "La Reyna" at the top, and signed "Yo la Reyna." The letter is for a credit to Isabella's chamberlain, Sancho de Paredes for various supplies, services, and expenditures. Matted and framed opposite a portrait of Isabella. The entire piece measures 19 inches by 20.5 inches. Rare and desirable signed by Queen Isabella. Isabella I was Queen of Castile. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, and unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Her reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms. Isabella and Ferdinand are known for completing the Reconquista, and for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World and to the establishment of Spain as the first global power which dominated Europe and much of the world for more than a century. Isabella was granted the title Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 1974. [Attributes: First Edition; Signed Copy]

Alden & Landis 505/8; BMC STC German, p. 772; JCB I, pp. 40-41; Proctor, German Books 1501-1520, 10386; VD16, J-712 (4 copies); cf. Adams H-714 (1501 Quentell edition); DSB XII, pp. 60-63. Fourth Quentell edition, extensively illustrated, of Sacrobosco's classic 13th-century treatise on astronomy De sphaera mundi ("On the sphere of the world"), with extensive commentary by the Czech astronomer Wenceslaus Fabri de Budweis (1455-1518). Two of the diagrams clearly explain a solar and a lunar eclipse. The present copy is extensively annotated by a (near) contemporary hand, adding even some further illustrations, including an astronomical diagram. The book is divided into four chapters treating the definition of a sphere; the various circles and their names; the cosmic, chronic, and heliacal risings and settings of the constellations; and the movements of the sun, moon and planets."Sacrobosco's fame rests firmly on his De sphaeria, a small work based on Ptolemy and his Arabic commentators, published about 1220 [...] It was quite generally adopted as the fundamental astronomy text, for often it was so clear that it needed little or no explanation." (DSB). Sacrobosco was the first European scholar to use Arabic sources for his astronomical studies, helping to spread Arabic knowledge to the Western world. He describes the earth as a sphere, opening the way for the Renaissance astronomical revolution of Copernicus and Gallileo. The work had a great impact on the science of astronomy in the following centuries. Alden & Landis cites the present edition as, "The earliest edn to refer t
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, . . Alden & Landis 505/8; BMC STC German, p. 772; JCB I, pp. 40-41; Proctor, German Books 1501-1520, 10386; VD16, J-712 (4 copies); cf. Adams H-714 (1501 Quentell edition); DSB XII, pp. 60-63. Fourth Quentell edition, extensively illustrated, of Sacrobosco's classic 13th-century treatise on astronomy De sphaera mundi ("On the sphere of the world"), with extensive commentary by the Czech astronomer Wenceslaus Fabri de Budweis (1455-1518). Two of the diagrams clearly explain a solar and a lunar eclipse. The present copy is extensively annotated by a (near) contemporary hand, adding even some further illustrations, including an astronomical diagram. The book is divided into four chapters treating the definition of a sphere; the various circles and their names; the cosmic, chronic, and heliacal risings and settings of the constellations; and the movements of the sun, moon and planets."Sacrobosco's fame rests firmly on his De sphaeria, a small work based on Ptolemy and his Arabic commentators, published about 1220 [...] It was quite generally adopted as the fundamental astronomy text, for often it was so clear that it needed little or no explanation." (DSB). Sacrobosco was the first European scholar to use Arabic sources for his astronomical studies, helping to spread Arabic knowledge to the Western world. He describes the earth as a sphere, opening the way for the Renaissance astronomical revolution of Copernicus and Gallileo. The work had a great impact on the science of astronomy in the following centuries. Alden & Landis cites the present edition as, "The earliest edn to
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[Colophon:] Venice: Aldus Manutius for Giovanni Pietro Valla, December 1501. First and only edition of the first great humanistic Renaissance encyclopaedia, an extraordinarily rich collection of translations from classical authors, and "une des plus belles productions des presses Aldines" (Graesse). It contains the first printings of any of the works of Archimedes, Apollonius, Autolycus, Eutocius, and Hero of Alexandria, Valla's own commentaries on Euclid (the first to be printed based on the Greek text), and the first printing of Ptolemy's star catalogue (the Almagest was not printed until 1515). "For the next forty years at least, De Rebus Expetendis remained almost the only printed source of reference for the works of Apollonius, Archimedes, the Eutocius commentaries, and Hero. It was used extensively by Leonardo [da Vinci] and Copernicus" (Rose 1975, p. 48). Leonardo owned a copy of De Expetendis, translated sections from it into Italian, and used it in his work on geometric proportions. De Expetendis is now recognized "as one of the most important direct sources of Leonardo's mathematical knowledge" (Kelley & Popkin, p. 45, n. 55). Copernicus, who studied the book in Padua, learned from it of the heliocentric ideas of Aristarchus; he also "made heavy use of the mathematical excerpts translated by Valla from such Greek authors as Archimedes, Autolycus and Ptolemy. Moreover, Copernicus used a star-catalogue printed by Valla which differs significantly from that of Ptolemy" (Rose 1975, pp. 123-4). De Expetendis was also an important source for Johannes Werner's work on co
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